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Comment by mrcharles | Hacker News Reader

All the more reason for data havens to exist. Run your server from a country where the police can't just take it with impunity.

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I think it's probably safer to proceed with the assumption that any sufficiently motivated government can seize your physical machine anytime they wish.

I should note that I'm not disagreeing with you, I just think there are more important considerations to make before physical location of the data.

Of course, then you have to keep careful tabs on that country's politics. The police can't confiscate your data in June, until a new bill is passed in July, and suddenly it's up for grabs.

Furthermore, I'm not sure I'd want to host my data in a country where the police cannot pursue digital criminals.

Like it or not it's still the wild west, and I suspect most people here trust their own ability to protect themselves more than they trust the sheriff who only investigates crimes against the mayor and can't even ride a horse or shoot straight.

Do you have any suggestions on safe countries? As far as I can tell, the USA is still has the best mixture of freedom and protection available.

The Netherlands, Sweden, etc. provide pretty good coverage and is where a lot of the seedboxes for torrenting are held. If you have something you want the government to have a almost nonexistent (depending on what it is) chance of getting to, go with Russia, China, etc. and other countries that probably don't have the best relations with the United States.

Russia and China are perhaps good examples of places to host something the US government has little chance of getting to, but the governments of those countries are far worse about this sort of thing than that of the States, so I wouldn't want my data to be stored there.

Depends on your data, you don't want your company IP or your bank details held there.

But they are hardly likely to pass onto the FBI the fact that you read the wiki article on Marx and so might be a security risk.

The CIA doesn't even need warrants.

In the US? The CIA can't operate in the US.

The CIA is (more or less) not allowed to operate in the US. Historically, that has not always stopped them.

We are talking about offshore datahavens.

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